MADRIGAL TEXTS AND THEIR MUSICAL SETTINGS
- Created by: A.E. GILLIAN
- Created on: 24-02-14 13:57
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- WILBYE'S MADRIGALS
- They have a strong sense of design. eg 'Lady when I behold' has the conventional canzonet repetitions supplemented to produce a clear AABBCDDEE structure.
- 'Sweet honey sucking bees' is in the tonic key of F minor and Wilbye's originality of design is illustrated at the principal cadence points where it was customary to use the major 3rd(tierce de picardie) not the minor 3rd. Wilbye develops this further by modulating to the tonic major several bars before the end instead of waiting for the final chord.
- Like Morley, Wilbye is happy to compose for any number of voices from 3 to 6
- General textrural subtlety and lightness of scoring as Wilbye preferred finer and far more varied sonorities. It is an exception to find all parts in simutaneous use in his work. eg 'Adieu sweet Amaryllis', the soprano voice is answered by a homophonic ATB for the word 'Adieu.'
- With 6 voices he prefers contrasted groupings to long brilliant tuttis and a notable feature of his music is the varied manner in which he scored his work, repeating phrases with different groups of voices.
- 'Weep weep mine eyes' is scored for 5 voices with its notable declamatory chordal settng of the words 'ay me ah cruel fortune' after the double bar, like choral recitation.
- 'Sweet honey sucking bees', the SSATB texture is reduced much of the time to SSAT for 19 bars and the work includes quite a few trios.
- Wilbye is less interested in long range repetition or in thematic relationships to unify a work (like Weelkes)
- UnHe sometimes repeats substantial phrases or whole sections in order to clarify the structure. eg In'Sweet honey sucking bees' he writesa statement and 2 repetitions of a 13 bar phrase for 3 voices only which forms a central section to te outer 5 voice sections
- He uses immediate repetition to expand the music but also to reinforce the expression of the text or phrase.
- UnHe sometimes repeats substantial phrases or whole sections in order to clarify the structure. eg In'Sweet honey sucking bees' he writesa statement and 2 repetitions of a 13 bar phrase for 3 voices only which forms a central section to te outer 5 voice sections
- Wilbye is less interested in long range repetition or in thematic relationships to unify a work (like Weelkes)
- 'Sweet honey sucking bees', the SSATB texture is reduced much of the time to SSAT for 19 bars and the work includes quite a few trios.
- 'Weep weep mine eyes' is scored for 5 voices with its notable declamatory chordal settng of the words 'ay me ah cruel fortune' after the double bar, like choral recitation.
- With 6 voices he prefers contrasted groupings to long brilliant tuttis and a notable feature of his music is the varied manner in which he scored his work, repeating phrases with different groups of voices.
- General textrural subtlety and lightness of scoring as Wilbye preferred finer and far more varied sonorities. It is an exception to find all parts in simutaneous use in his work. eg 'Adieu sweet Amaryllis', the soprano voice is answered by a homophonic ATB for the word 'Adieu.'
- Like Morley, Wilbye is happy to compose for any number of voices from 3 to 6
- 'Sweet honey sucking bees' is in the tonic key of F minor and Wilbye's originality of design is illustrated at the principal cadence points where it was customary to use the major 3rd(tierce de picardie) not the minor 3rd. Wilbye develops this further by modulating to the tonic major several bars before the end instead of waiting for the final chord.
- Wilbye's most common type of sequence is built from a 3 voice phrase in which 2 voices move largely in 3rds over a mainly static bass.
- Sometimes he adds counterpoint to a sequence or repetition. eg when the opening music returns at the centre of 'Draw on sweet night.'
- He make suse of subtle contrapuntal style with more use of longer polyphonic passages and a stronger sense of counterpoint in his 2nd set of madrigals with, at times, more complex textures. eg In 'Fly not so swift', in which a setting of a cynical poem on woman's perversity starts with homophony but becomes increasingly contrapuntal to reflect something of the lyric.
- Wilbye's depiction and expression of the text was unsurpassed, particularly when he portrayed a changing emotional state. eg 'All pleasure is of this condition' changes from joy to grief. 'Sweet honey sucking bees exemplifies word painting on the words 'flight' set to a rising imitative quaver scalic figure and 'revel and smiling' is marked by the use of major tonality.
- Limited use of chromaticism and his only passage of extended chromaticism is a simple colouring of G minor in 'Oft have I vowed'
- UntiWilbye makes expressive use of major/minor alterations , sometimes he simply adds one or 2 chromatic notes from another mode to a passage or sometimes he wrote a whole section in the other mode. eg 'Yet sweet, take heed' and 'Adieu sweet Amaryllis' the overall pathos and G minor tonality turns to the tonic major (G major) for the final section of 10 bars.
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- In 'Draw on Sweet night' he uses major and minor as a structural device as after the 1st 2 mainsections ( the 1st polyphonic passage in the tonic major and the 2nd in the minor) the opening wordsand music return to be developed further , after a sequential major passage the tonal sequence is reversed as the music gradually returns to the 2nd (minor) section so that the piece has an overall unity and integration.
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- They have a strong sense of design. eg 'Lady when I behold' has the conventional canzonet repetitions supplemented to produce a clear AABBCDDEE structure.
- Wilbye's most common type of sequence is built from a 3 voice phrase in which 2 voices move largely in 3rds over a mainly static bass.
- Limited use of chromaticism and his only passage of extended chromaticism is a simple colouring of G minor in 'Oft have I vowed'
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